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Big
boost for GTP
An upgrade of the Geelong Technology Precinct worth more then $2 million will create an even greater multi-disciplinary environment on Deakin University’s Geelong campus for some of the world’s leading researchers.
“Essentially the creation of more office space and laboratories will allow us to bring the biotechnology experts into the same place as the chemists and the experts in materials and fibres,” said the GTP’s director, John Paxton (pictured below).
“At the moment, a lot of the new
researchers recruited to BioDeakin are spread out in other parts of Geelong.
“This refurbishment will provide spaces for them, and also for the
new electron microscopes and other biotechnology equipment we are providing
to assist them with their research.”
Professor Peter Hodgson, head of the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation that is already housed in the GTP, also welcomed the upgraded facilities.
“It will provide a home for our Co-operative Research Centres, for new equipment and for the 50 or so new staff and students we have brought to Deakin in recent times.
“But I guess more importantly, it further develops our multi-disciplinary approach to research.
“We will have experts from a number of fields all under the one roof, exchanging ideas.
“The
extra space will also allow us to continue to grow, to attract more world-class
researchers.
“What we are finding is that the word is out about the CMFI, about BioDeakin and the GTP and more and more researchers wants to come here to work with us.
“They bring with them the sort of projects that have enormous potential to improve the health and lifestyles of people around the world – safer cars and aeroplanes, better materials for replacement joints, potential cures for a range of ailments including heart disease, obesity, asthma and cancer.
“It is very heartening that these experts from around the world are seeing the GTP as the sort of place in which they want to work.
“It is also pleasing that we can provide them with not only a wonderful collaborative environment, but the space and equipment they need.”
Click here to take a guided tour of the GTP www.deakin.edu.au/gtp/profile/index.php
Tania Bezzobs – a knowledge translator skilled in language of research and industry
Tania
Bezzobs reckons she has one of the most interesting jobs in the university
sector.
“I am fortunate that I get to learn about so much of the exciting, interesting and relevant research being undertaken at Deakin,” said Tania, who is the university’s Research and Business Development Manager.
“I also help our researchers attract partners and funds to develop the research further and ensure that is taken up by industry and the community.
“Almost every day I hear and learn about how Deakin research can and is making a difference and improving the welfare, profitability and sustainability of Australia’s people, businesses and the environment.
“I am able to add value in my role as a translator and broker between researchers, industry and government because I understand and am experienced in the language of all.
“One of the real challenges for meaningful university-industry interaction is agreeing on the needs, goals and objectives at the start of a project as quite often researchers and business people are coming from different perspectives.”
Tania is part of a team of three in Deakin’s Innovation and Research Development Group committed to working with researchers on strategic research initiatives and helping them identify research outcomes that may have commercial value or application. The other members of the team are Sandra McClelland and Marcus Bolger. All have unique skills they bring to the group.
Tania has an honours degree from the University of Adelaide and a PhD in nutritional zoology from Monash University.
After Monash, she worked at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria for a number of years, firstly managing the Beachwatch beach monitoring program then developing marine policy.
“During my time at the EPA, I recognised the value and importance of research in decision and policy making,” said Tania.
“It is something I have always kept close to me … that, as well as contributing to our fundamental knowledge base, good research can and should make a difference.”
Whilst at the EPA, Tania began a MBA from the Melbourne Business School, which she completed while working with the Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.
There she was involved in Science Technology and Innovation program management.
“The most inspiring part of my time at DIIRD was seeing the wealth of research excellence and innovation in Victoria and it was really a logical step to take up the opportunity to work at Deakin,” she said.
“Much of my work has a science and technology focus. I’ve worked closely with Professor Peter Hodgson, Deakin’s first Federation Fellow, and his team over the last five years and I am really excited by their current research in materials science and nanotechnology.
“They are active in the biomaterials field and are looking to develop high performance materials for orthopaedic implants: this is very important because, the health care burden from hip replacements is only going to increase as our population ages.
“Professor Xungai Wang and his team in the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation are also doing amazing work with fibres and textiles. Every time I see Xungai, it seems he has come up with a new idea or a new functional fibre.
“I am currently helping him to commercialise one of the innovative technologies he has developed, This would not have come about without a major strategic investment from one of Australia’s rural development corporations.
“However, I feel privileged that my work also goes beyond science. In the last year or so, I’ve worked with Professor Bill Logan on developing a project in relation to the cultural heritage of the Australian Alps, and recently I’ve been working with Professor Martine Powell on applying more broadly her expertise in forensic interviewing of children.
“I’m sure that 2007 will be even more interesting than last year. I’m also adding one further language to my library of specialist dictionaries, so to speak, as I complete my Masters of Intellectual Property Law.”
Researchers or businesses can contact Tania on 0418 525 670 or email her at: tania.bezzobs@deakin.edu.au.
Research Services Division:
Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds
Pigdons Road, Geelong, Victoria 3217 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 5227 2673 Facsimile:
+61 3 5227 2175
Email: dvc-research@deakin.edu.au
www.deakin.edu.au/research
Deakin Research Updates - back copies
Back issues of Deakin Research Updates are available at: www.deakin.edu.au/research
Nicole wins Peter Doherty Fellowship
Although only in the early stages of her research career, Dr Nicole Stupka is already making a name for herself at the highest level.
In December, 2006 and soon after joining the strong partnership between BioDeakin and Barwon Biomedical Research, Dr Stupka was awarded a prestigious four year Peter Doherty Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
The Fellowship allows Dr Stupka to study the effect of increased oxidative stress associated with type 2 diabetes and aging on the cell-signalling pathways regulating muscle loss, growth, and repair.
To support this research Dr Stupka - in collaboration with Professor Geoff Nicholson and Associate Prof David Cameron-Smith - has also been awarded a one-year grant from the Deakin University Central Research Grant Scheme.
“It was a great thrill and a great honour to receive the Peter Doherty Fellowship,” Dr Stupka said.
“I think one of the reasons I was able to gain it was the great support I have received while working at Deakin and the Geelong Hospital.
Clare Bradford – The story teller helping Indigenous people to tell their stories
When she was a little girl growing up in New Zealand, Professor Clare Bradford could see that the Maori children in her class at school were different.
They didn’t wear shoes, even in the middle of winter.
They lived in houses in low-lying parts of her town that were frequently flooded, while she lived in a drier, warmer area.
Understanding those differences, especially how the stories behind them are recorded – or are not recorded - in modern children’s literature, has now become Clare’s life work.
“Traditionally, settler nations like New Zealand and Australia, Canada and the United States, haven’t been very good at telling the stories of their Indigenous people in a way that gives a better understanding of those communities,” said Professor Bradford, who holds a personal chair in Literary Studies at Deakin University.
High flying graduates...